Ex-delivery driver Joe Dean wins final Open Championship spot in shootout

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32-year-old, who admitted feeling ‘the stress’ with six holes to go, won by one shot with his fiancee as his caddie

A greenside bunker shot that landed like a butterfly with sore feet. A knee-knocker of a 4ft putt, thumped into the back of the hole. Joe Dean did not win the Open Championship on Monday – and inevitably will not on Sunday, either – but the drama delivered by the former delivery driver from Sheffield fully justified R&A innovation.

It has long seemed unsatisfactory that focus shifts towards golfers beginning their Open buildup as a tournament concludes elsewhere. Scottie Scheffler missed the cut at the Scottish Open yet the world No 1 drew eyeballs at Royal Birkdale on Sunday as he plotted a Claret Jug defence . A day later, the Open’s organisers broke with recent form by delivering some of the real stuff. The Birkdale scene was all the better for that.

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